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Sunday School
Feast Of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:33–43)
While in the wilderness Is- rael lived in makeshift houses made from tree branches. (God also “lived” in a makeshift house called the tabernacle.) So to remind Is- rael of God’s care, he called the people to relive their wilderness experience by tak- ing branches from luxuriant trees—from palms, willows and other leafy tress—and make houses from them and live in them for one week. Leviticus 23:40-43 It was like going camping with God. This was to be done every year. Unfortunately Israel forgot to do this for years and deprived themselves of many joys (Nehemiah 8:14-18).
Pentecost celebrated the first part of the yearly har- vest, and Tabernacles cele- brated the ending of the yearly harvest. Celebration and rest were not the only parts to the Feast of Taberna- cles. Food was also a special part of these seven days in the middle of the month. Since the harvest had just concluded, food would be in
abundance. Israel was asked to remember the Lord with their food and bring food of- ferings to the Lord each day of this week. Then on the eighth day they were to hold a special sacred assembly and present food offerings to the Lord. Leviticus 23:33- 39. This was like a crescendo to their celebration. They were to abstain from work.
Animals were also associ- ated with the Feast of Taber- nacles. Numbers 29:12-38 indicated that offering bulls and goats along with the food offerings were a part of this celebration.
Verses 37 and 38 are clearly parenthetical. They summarize the offerings for the Feast of Tabernacles as well as some of the other feasts also discussed in the chapter.
Think Big
There might be more the- ological profundity to the Feast of Tabernacles than one would see at first glance. For one thing, Jesus took ad- vantage of this feast for an
awesome claim about him- self. His half-brothers urged him to go to this feast so he could be more publically known (John 7:3, 4). Jesus went to the feast, but he did so on his own timetable (v. 10).
All kinds of controversy swirled about Jesus during this visit to Jerusalem. Some thought that he might be demon possessed, while oth- ers thought he might be the Christ (vv. 20, 26). On the last day of the feast, when there was a ceremony dealing with water, Jesus essentially claimed to be the water of life and made a promise about the Holy Spirit (vv. 38, 39).
The language of Taberna- cles is the language of the en- tire narrative of the Bible. Living among the trees and in shelters with God is the language of the Garden of Eden (original creation) and the language of the new heaven and new earth (new creation). This is our primal reality—living in a shelter with God for eternity.
Pushing the pause button to remember God’s faithful- ness is a healthy spiritual dis- cipline. Every so often we need to take a step back from the daily grind and enjoy a spiritual sanity check.
In many ways that is how the Feast of Tabernacles functioned for Israel. This feast was one of the final ones according to our calen- dar year. (The Feast of Dedi- cation, celebrated in winter, originated later than Leviti- cus.) Tabernacles celebrated harvest’s end and God’s faithfulness during the wilderness wanderings.
To show this we will invert
our study and look at the verses in opposite order.
God used the wilderness for a number of purposes. He wanted to test his people for their obedience. He also wanted to teach Israel to rely on him for their daily needs. Due to their lack of faith, they spent much more time in the wilderness than they should have (Numbers 14:34). However, God’s mercy was still at work for Israel by pro- viding for their needs. Their shoes and clothes did not wear out, and God miracu- lously fed them with manna until they entered the prom- ised land (Joshua 5:10-12).
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